Talk:Abortion

There is no dispute that these quotes are accurate, are from the journal edited by Anthony, and they were signed "A". Thus they do not belong in the "Dipsuted" section, but under Section A. Any concern about the varying attributions is covered very succinctly in the attribution blurb, which does NOT attribute the words to a specific person, but rather accurately describes the source of the quotation and its varying implications. 69.138.131.88 18:34, 16 August 2012 (UTC)

I have reorganized the article with these quotes in a section labeled "Anonymous" rather than "Disputed", along with other anonymousities. Is this an acceptable compromise? ~ Ningauble (talk) 17:36, 20 August 2012 (UTC)

I support the move by Ningauble of all anonymous entries to their own section at the bottom. Certainly the 1869 essay signed "A" belongs there. Binksternet (talk) 20:02, 20 August 2012 (UTC)

I agree also. Since we really can't know who said these things, or whether they were notable or knowledgeable figures, the quotes are of no value except to show that a random person of the time period in which they are reported would have said what was said. BD2412T 21:33, 20 August 2012 (UTC)

Ann D. Gordon is the world's top scholar on Susan B. Anthony. She is the leader of the 30-year Elizabeth Cady Stanton & Susan B. Anthony Papers Project at Rutgers University. She has coordinated the effort to digitize, classify and interpret all of the 14,000 known documents pertaining to Anthony and her colleague Stanton. Gordon has determined that Anthony cannot be said to be the author of the 1869 essay marked "A" because of its preachy, religious tone (Anthony was not religious) and because Anthony never, ever signed "A" to her writings. Beyond that, Anthony never dedicated any of her speeches or essays to the subject of abortion—she considered it a political hot potato, a distraction from the more important goal of women's right to vote. See Susan B. Anthony abortion dispute.

The only connection that the essay has to Anthony is that Anthony was the owner of the newspaper which printed it. She was not the editor of the Revolution: that duty was shared by Parker Pillsbury and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Anthony was not involved in day-to-day oversight of the newspaper; in July 1869 she was off to Saratoga for a women's rights convention and in August she was angering men in Philadelphia as she tried to get into a Labor convention. She was constantly riding trains to various US cities to give speeches and help the cause of suffrage; she was not sitting in the Revolution office going over typeset pages.

When scholars such as Ann D. Gordon and Laury Oaks agree with each other and with Anthony biographer Lynn Sherr that Anthony was not interested in speaking out or writing about abortion, we take their conclusions seriously. No topic scholar has spoken up in disagreement. On the other hand, the assertions of pro-life activists such as Cat Clark and Marjorie Dannenfelser are inherently suspect and wholly insufficient to counterbalance the weight of scholarship. Any pro-life activist saying Anthony was a pro-life activist cannot be given equal footing to a neutral scholar studying all of Anthony's writings. Binksternet (talk) 20:02, 20 August 2012 (UTC)

This discussion would be well-suited to an article about Susan B. Anthony. The attribution on the wikiquote page should not include that discussion. Mention of the common attribution and a scholar's disputation of that attribution is appropriate. The quote has been moved and the dispute is included. 76.6.193.163 22:36, 22 August 2012 (UTC)

Looking after our readers, we cannot let them take away the impression that Susan B. Anthony actually wrote those quotes when the leading scholars agree that she did not. Any changes that put some degree of uncertainty on the matter—any diminution of the scholarly assessment—should be resisted. The reader should know not to assign these quotes to SBA, no matter how much pro-life propaganda uses them. Binksternet (talk) 22:59, 22 August 2012 (UTC)

That's rich, coming from an IP editor who is promoting the anti-abortion position on Wikiquote rather than pushing for neutral representation. Th favoring of paternalism is also evident in this change you made to Ave Maria, Florida, taking out the well-cited word "controversial". Monaghan is nothing if not paternal. Binksternet (talk) 22:33, 24 August 2012 (UTC)